Lean Culture Transformation
Global automotive component supplier
What was the problem?
Built by acquisition, this braking system group had over 10,000 people in 24 plants around the world with at least three very distinct cultures. Its customers, the major auto manufacturers, were starting to complain that consistency, responsiveness and product quality was no longer good enough. A top to bottom transformation was needed.
What did you do?
First we helped the company take stock of its situation and gathered pertinent data from customers and employees. A new vision and strategic goals were crafted by the executive team in a series of workshops which also confronted leadership behaviours. We then designed a transformation programme that would take every employee at every level through a rigorous analysis of processes and direct training in lean techniques.
What happened?
More than 200 facilitators were internally recruited and received over ten days of training in improvement methods and consulting skills. They then became the team that trained everyone else in the entire company. It was not unusual for senior executives to be trained by a shop floor facilitator and a deaf employee was trained using sign language. Within a year, every person in the company had received the same training and was actively engaged in coordinated day-to-day improvement action. Customers and suppliers were regularly co-opted onto to improvement teams and the teams often met at customer operations to address problems directly.
What was the outcome?
Leaders’ behaviours changed quickly as they took on board their behavioural feedback and followed the example of the Managing Director who was very open about the changes in style he had to make. The separate cultures rapidly merged into one under the new vision, goals and operational practices. The customer-centred improvement activity had an early and dramatic impact: 100% on time product delivery, 100% on time software delivery, 100% response to customer issues in 24 hours, zero parts per million defects. As a result, the company went from low down on General Motors’ supplier list to winning their top award – number one global supplier out of 30,000. Many other awards followed and the improvement culture was soundly embedded in each plant.